Our Hero Academia: Chapter 54
Into the Gorgon's Lair Midori waited patiently for their exam to start, fiddling around with her cat helmet as she pulled the visor up and down. She looked onward to see their arena and the best way to approach it, as well as the danger that lurked within the grounds. Everyone knew Hana Kojima's quirk well, she was the referee of the Sports Festival after all. With an ability to freeze her targets in place by simply looking at them, how could Midori not think of this as a hard fight. The fighting grounds took the appearance of an airport runway, all way too clear for Midori's liking. With very minimal places to hide besides some of the prop planes and baggages that laid around the place, Hana had sure chosen a place where she can truly fight. The two students were meant to start on one side, with the exit being on the far end on the opposite side. Thing was there was a large control tower with a metal catwalk that brimmed its body with two levels connected by an detachable ladder, allowing Hana to get either a higher or lower view of the students. And she was obviously standing right on it, telescope in hand ready to begin the battle. With an open space like this, some students would have preferred to duke it out with the teachers, where quirks like Aiko and Jirou's would prove more effective. In a way, this made things a little bit more easier for Hana as she could see her targets most of the time. "Great, of all the teachers, I'm put up against this one..." Midori rolled her eyes, sighing loudly. Isabella walked up to Midori, also waiting for the fighting to start. She was in her hero costume which, in the daylight, didn't let much light off it's indicators, but you could still tell that they were lit, indicating that Isabella was ready and charged up for the fight. Isabella looked around, noticing the prominent details about their exam area. She stuck out her hand to Midori, saying, "Let's have fun, yeah? We got some tricks up our sleeves so let,s go for it!" Midori could only roll her eyes and ignore Isabella's remark, leaving her hanging as she began to scope out the field. Nothing was obviously going to be left easy for the two of them, and with Hana being able to freeze just about anyone she sees, Midori didn't have high hopes for their side prevailing in this fight. She looked at how open the arena was and how blatantly clear the exit seemed to be. With the large control tower, Midori could only feel pressured with how the battle could just be finished in an instant if they weren't too careful. Isabella continued to look at the field, noting the disadvantage they would have. She looked towards the tower, noting that Kojima- Sensei would have chosen this area for the height advantage. Isabella had a plan to take care of the tower, and was thankful that she had chosen to store up her energy reserves as much as she could for the exams. "Hey Midori," Isabella asked, "Do you think that Kojima-Sensei's quirk would work if we were surrounded by dust?" Midori shook her head, "Wouldn't stop us from getting frozen still. Dust is too small act as a wall. Whilst it can obscure vision it hasn't really stopped Kojima from freezing Guido from Class 2-B. The best approach we have is..." Stopping mid-sentence, Midori tilted her head to the side, trying to think of what options they really have on the table. Granted they could try charge towards the tower, but she'd see them from a mile away. Trying to follow the far side and following that to get to the goal seemed like something, but when Hana's got her telescope, distance doesn't really matter. "Bet Aiko doesn't need to strategise like this during her fight..." Isabella thought about that for a moment. She needed a solid surface to get across the field safely. She chuckled at two ideas that came to her. "Hey Midori," Isabella said getting her attention. "Two ideas. Let's reinvent the wheel, or dig underground. which would you prefer?" Isabella said as she knew the start time was coming soon. "Sure, we can dig underground. Thing is, we'd be wasting too much energy to try and get to the other side, with or without or quirk. There's so many things that could happen, Kojima figuring out what we are doing, running out of power, might even be a possibility of the ground above us collapsing and burying us alive. Maybe make a distraction on the other side to keep her occupied? Once she sees that she's bound to try and look for us over there, then probably use your quirk to speed up our getaway?" Midori figured, shrugging as she thought of the possibilities. Hana sat inside the control tower, peering through her eyeglass to where the students were meant to begin. Pulling out a pipe as continued to remain fixated, Hana gently held it between her lips as she reached in for a lighter. Smoking usually wasn't her cup of tea, but this was a special blend recommended to her by Li Jie, it wasn't as bad as tobacco. Pulling a long necked lighter from her pocket, Hana stuck the end into mouth of the pipe, lighting the mixture that was prepacked into it. Small puffs of smoke were released from the corner of her mouth before taking in a long breathe. Letting the smoke body through her nostrils, Hana sighed before placing the lighter back into her pocket. She held the eyeglass and the pipe with both hands as she looked in the direction of the students. It was about time that she had atleast got to show off her quirk to the others, not having the opportunity to during the Sports Festival. Isabella let out a small chuckle as she got an idea in her mind. She put out her hand to Midori saying, "I need you to get on my back real quick. I got a plan," Isabella said as she motioned with her open hand for the urgency of what her plan is. Isabella being 2-3 inches shorter than Midori made for an interesting sight, but they didn't have time to comment on the silliness of it all. Isabella said, "Hold tight," as she activated her quirk in her legs, launching the pair towards the closest hanger with the hanger door was facing away from the tower so Kojima couldn't see them once they are inside. Isabella and Midori came to a stop moments before they hit the far wall of the hanger. Inside there was tools, shelves, and a prop plane that didn't fly. They had two points of entry, the main hanger door and a side door towards the back that could lead them to a path towards the tower. Isabella let go of Midori and said, "Are you alright? I have a plan." Midori began to walk around and look all over the place, noting the prop plane that was situated with them. "What're you thinking..." she asked in a monotone voice. "Isabella said one word, "Distraction." She walked over to the plan and began to try and move it after removing the wheel blocks. It moved with ease, thankfully not being bolted to the ground. Isabella turned to Midori, "Two options. We can cover ourselves with this Cessna or send it out using my quirk to distract Kojima sensei. The only problem is we don't know how well Kajima sensei knows this airport, and either way we decide to proceed it will most likely be our only option." "...Well didn't the teachers choose which environment we're being assessed in? I'm going to guess Kojima chose this because she knew it well and because of her quirk. If we move it then Kojima will know its us and confront us, if we distract her with it then we lose our barrier." Midori pointed out, placing both hands on her hips. Isabella crossed her arms. "If you have any better ideas, I am ready to hear it. These are the two ideas I have, and if you have a better suggestion, I say let's get down to it. We are losing time and possible advantages." She said as she was beginning to get nervous. In the back of her mind, she knew that this was a very difficult situation, but she wanted to try her best to win anyways. "...You make a break for it, I'll see what I can do with Kojima. I can probably salvage some marks from this part of the assessment to get me a pass altogether. If anyone is able to reach the other side faster it might just be you with how much energy you still got stored." Midori suggested as she rolled her sleeves up. "I'll get into that plane and you send it right at Kojima for me yeah?" "Now wait a minute! That would be suicide for your grade! Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Isabella said. She was ready to do anything, but was worried about Midori's well being. "Aw, that's cute, for someone to care about me." Midori replied sarcastically as she made her way into the prop plane in the hangar. "Hurry up, unless you want Kojima to get suspicious." Isabella made a small frown at everything but removed the locks that help the plane in place. "Alright, here we go," Isabella said as she activated her Impulse Drive and began to push the plane out of the hanger out of physical view of Kojima. Once there was enough clearance, Isabella pushed off from the ground with the plane with a loud ''Crack! ''and once they were at the peak of their jump force, she did a round house kick to the back of the plane, rocketing it towards the tower that she believed that Kojima was at. As the plane flew at the tower, Isabella dropped back to the ground to sprint towards the exit. The plane crashed into the dense concrete of the tower, however, didn’t make as much destructive impact as Midori thought it would. The front of the plane was forced into itself as the glass shattered around. The plane had been crushed due to he forces throwing it and stopping it. It certainly distracted Hana, as the sound of he plane smashing into the body of the tower could be heard all around. The plane fell to the ground as its front scarpped along the tower, shattering more glass and denting the vehicle once abruptly landing on the ground. Midori who was still in the plane managed to steady herself, having avoided being tossed around the plane by holding onto a nearby seat. The ride wasn’t at all pleasant, as the green haired girl felt her head spin for a good moment or so. She took the opportunity to take deep breathes before her encounter, just hoping that one of the pair would make it out. Although she didn’t express it as often, Midori did care about the people around her, she just didn’t want to repeat a bond that would break her like last time. “Maybe, if I’m lucky, Kojima won’t immedaitely freeze me.” She said to herself, bringing some sort of hope to her side. Hana came down to investigate the crash, pipe held between her lips, she opened the damaged plane door to reveal a resting Midori. She looked at the student suspiciously, squinting her eyes intimidatingly at the student before sighing. “I’m disappointed Crane, didn’t think you’d be the one to sacrifice yourself for your friend.” Midori smirked, a refreshing expression for Kojima who became close to the student not long ago, “Yeah yeah. Get it over and done with, we both know how this is meant to end, right?” Hana shook her head, before looking back to Midori with a blank stare. “Say cheese.” she teased as her eyes flashed.